Hundreds of local people and visiting tourists witnessed the Marhamchurch's annual fundraising event in near-perfect weather conditions as this year's chosen revel queen, Charlie Butler, was crowned by Old Father Time (a resident of the area whose identity is, by tradition, kept a secret from all except his brethren) and rode side-saddle around the village and onto the revel field followed by her attendants.

At the revel, people of all ages enjoyed a range of stalls including tombola, cakes, ice cream and cold drinks, plants, toys and books and a huge variety of other attractions including a bouncy castle, smashing crockery stall, coconut shy, skittles alley and face painting. One of the more unusual attractions was a chess challenge in which the village's young chess prodigy, Theo Slade, took on all-comers by playing up to six games simultaneously.

In the arena, the fancy dress competition resulted in Noah Griffiths, the pirate, carrying off the booty in the toddler category, Georgina Harris Medland better known as Stephanie from Lazy Town beating off a strong challenge from Harry Simms the Top Gun pilot in the middle category and in the older category a long journey to the revel from Cleopatra, Billie Morton, proved worthwhile with Rebecca Simms as Cinderella in Rags taking second prize.

In the group category, Tylor and Natalia Jacquett took the prize as The Simpsons.

There was a record entry and fierce competition in the M Factor talent show with Morgane Dumas and Gemma MacManus winning first prize with a very polished dance act, the singing duo of Katy Corner and Holly Bakewell taking runners-up spot and Lea Dumas and Laurie-Mai Butler gaining third prize with their singing and dancing act.

The crowd were also entertained by Bude Jive Club, Holsworthy Majorettes and the Gittisham Jazz Band. Cornish cream teas were served in the Bray Village Hall through the afternoon.

In the evening, the junior and senior pram races took place around the village. The best decorated wheeled vehicle in the former section was won by 'Fame' while in the latter section the spectacular 'Ashes to Ashes', very deservedly, took the prize.

In a closely-fought junior race involving one circuit of the immediate village, 'The Red Devils' beat off the challenge from 'The A Team' while in the longer senior race 'Can't Be Bothered' proved anything but, as the team scored yet another victory. As usual, the spectators enjoyed themselves by keeping the participants cool with water bombs. How thoughtful!

The entertainment provided at The Bullers Arms on Sunday and on the evening of the revel helped to make it an event to remember.

As one tourist commented on Monday evening: "Marhamchurch is a fun place to live. We're definitely booking again next year."

The revel organising committee wish to thank all the people whose hard work on the day helped to ensure that the event was another great success and look forward to distributing the profits amongst a variety of local organisations.